Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing, it has been a pleasure. Hopefully you will enjoy this second chapter too. The first two chapters seem to be quite packed of almost sentimental melodrama, so I hope you are not bothered with that. I might just have to restrain myself a little, although melodrama generally suits and stays true to Marimite very well.

Enjoy!


2. An Angel's Grace

It was her third day in Hokkaido, and in the northernmost of the main islands of Japan winter was already approaching. The temperatures were getting frighteningly near zero, and Youko had made her usual mistake, not carrying with her warm enough clothes. Fortunately, she didn't have to endure the freezing weather all that much. She was, after all, a successful lawyer who had graduated from Tokyo University. The cold could not reach inside the luxury car assigned to her use.

Lying in her bed in a five-star hotel in Sapporo, Youko was thoroughly fed up with everything. She had kicked her high heels off her feet, unbuttoned her stainless, white blouse and untied her skirt from her waist. The clothes had urged her squirm for the whole day, but she had endured it all by biting her lip when there was no-one watching. Before the trip, she had actually held some tenuous hopes that she would have time for some sightseeing and meeting up with her old friends who had drifted to the north, but her hopes had been in vain. There were talks of merging between her firm and another company, and all the related chit-chat had kept her busy like nothing else could have ever had. Tomorrow she would be heading back to Tokyo. At least she would not have to wake up so damn early.

Later in the evening, when Youko felt revitalized enough to start feeling bored, she put on a blue jumper and ordinary jeans and decided to inspect the hotel's bar. Before going she stopped in front of the mirror to quickly catch a glimpse of herself.

For as long as she could remember, people had told her she had very formal features. "A distant beauty", they used to call her. "Impressive", they would describe her. Indeed, with her piercing eyes and regular features she was clear-cut to be a natural leader. She wore her hair just above her shoulders in a fashion which had not changed since her high school years.

The bar was located in the top floor of the skyscraper with a panorama view on the city. The lounge was oval shaped with the counter situated in the middle of the room, and Youko found herself sitting in in one of the tables beside the wall made of glass. She could see the city's lights glimmering beneath her like winking stars, and the lights were closest to stars Youko had seen in a long time. She had heard stories that in the countryside one could actually see millions of real ones during clear nights, but in Tokyo it was rare to see even a few.

Youko sighed and took a sip of her whisky. Even now, the sky was lit with artificial illumination. The light had a greenish tinge to it, and as a few misshaped clouds passed through the sky, Youko could vividly see a giant emerald-coloured clockwork machine suspended in the air, its cogwheels turning endlessly, seamlessly merging into each other. Although she had always told herself otherwise, in that very moment she felt more like those smaller cogwheels who dutifully obeyed the whims of the larger ones.

Youko shifted the whisky glass restlessly between her hands. She was feeling anxious for no apparent reason.

Perhaps it is the unfamiliar environment, she reflected, sweeping an undisciplined strand of her hair away from her face.

No, this has nothing to do with me being in Sapporo.

During those past few evenings when she had only been able to lie in her bed, exhausted to the core but not calm enough to sleep, she had had simply too much time to think. She mostly had thought about her career, her aspirations and her dreams, if she still had them. The treadmill society, in which the road never ended regardless of how far you ran, was not one encouraging people to dream.

Bring one feet in front of the other and repeat the process so many times until the hurting feet and the bleeding heart became so numb one could do nothing but carry on even if one suddenly wished otherwise.

Youko sighed. Such cynical thoughts did not belong in her head, and it was because of those dark musings that she knew she was really upset. She poured the remaining yellowish liquid in her whisky glass almost furiously into her mouth, and it made her grimace as the alcohol burned her throat like fire.

"I would like to have another one", she hailed at the bartender.

The bar was almost empty in the middle of the week, and the young man probably in his early twenties serving Youko her whisky seemed to be pleased with her presence. He tried to start some small talk and Youko smiled politely to his words, but she was simply too tired and disinterested to reply. The boy soon noticed this and returned to polishing wine glasses.

The whisky was starting to affect Youko, and she was getting warm. Once more she looked outside. In comparison with the bustling city, which was laid out beneath her in such clarity, she could not avoid feeling puny and somehow disconnected. The cars speeded through the broad streets, lights went on and off, people were arguing and making love and none of it concerned her.

Looking around the bar, she could see a middle-aged couple discussing something intently while holding hands, a fashionably dressed young woman with stereos and a boy probably just turned eighteen wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt. A mosaic world where every tile had a different colour.

At least the whisky is good, she thought.

It had a balanced taste, a solid mix of sweetness and smokiness which had an almost rejuvenating effect on her, who did not usually even like whisky very much. Now she was sipping the drink incessantly, craving more of the addictive substance with every gulp she swallowed. She had to exercise extreme self-control to stop herself from ordering a third glass.

She wanted to sleep.

She rose up abruptly and started staggering towards the elevator, her steps a bit unstable. Her head felt too heavy and too light at the same time, and it had nothing to do with the alcohol in her system.


"After all your torment, have you even gotten rich?" Sei laughed.

Youko smiled bitterly.

Satou Sei, always so straightforward, always so incorrect with her behaviour. Sei, who could turn everything upside down, who could break through the walls of frost Youko had built around herself. And Youko loved it. With Sei's sexy smile and vivaciously expressive face, how could it be otherwise?

"It depends on how you define 'rich', but I can make ends meet, yes", Youko responded.

"Are you close to taking over the company?"

Sei winked.

"In the name of Maria-sama, no I am not! You know I am too young for it, and I if I seriously attempted to do that I would have to work myself to death."

"As if I am not already suffering enough", Youko added as an afterthought.

"Oh dear", Sei sighed.

She was wearing her hair like she had in their final year of high school, in the way Youko liked it most. Youko tried to imagine the Lillian uniform on Sei, but she was unable to do that.

"Look at you, if I had known back then that you would get so messed up I would have never let my eyes off you", Sei reprimanded in a pretentiously grave voice.

Youko looked at Sei with an almost hurt expression on her face.

"What? Are you angry at me?" Sei teased. "Should I have called you and invited you for a cup of tea?"

Youko turned her head towards the window, and she felt how Sei snuggled closer to her. The distance between them had never been far to start, and now they were so near to each other that Youko could feel the heat emanating from the blonde woman.

Yes, Sei could sometimes be coarse, a bit rough from the edges, a bit too frank. Yet there was so much warmth inside her that every freezing person in the world could have gathered around her and still there would be a whole lot to spare. She was a pocket-sized sun, a universe of her own, an eternal flame that burned a trace in the hearts of everyone who had ever seen her and heard her laugh.

"Come on, don't be so unfair", Sei giggled. "How was I supposed to take the initiative? If a natural meddler like you suddenly went quiet, it must have meant that you had lost all interest in me."

Youko shuddered.

She did not want Sei to know how true the latter's words had been. And it had not been a silent goodbye, more like a world-shattering earthquake. She was unable to meet Sei's gaze and continued instead to look outside at the approaching eventide. The city was being covered by a dark veil, and soon even the reddish colours of dusk would disappear from the horizon. Youko wondered whether the heavenly clockworks would also appear here in Tokyo.

Youko tried several times to brace herself and explain, but she could not say a word. It was as if her mouth had been glued shut, and whenever she tried to speak only a pathetic whimper would come out.

As she expected, Sei did not push her to reply.

"Well, what else has been up with you?" Sei asked.

Youko could almost sense Sei's symphathtic smile.

"You were wrong, Sei", she said, her voice barely audible.

"What are you babbling about?"

This time, Youko turned her head and looked straight into Sei's magnificent eyes. She stretched out her both hands and pressed them against Sei's cheeks, drawing the blonde woman's head closer to her own.

"Shiori was not an angel", she exhaled, leaning her forehead against Sei's. "Because you are."

"Dummy", Sei whispered in Youko's ear. "I hope you didn't sincerely believe I didn't want to spend the night here, because I would be very angry if you did."

Youko shook her head slightly. Everything else aside, she was happier than she had been in ages just because she could once again nuzzle herself in Sei's soft, welcoming embrace. It was almost as it had been before, the two pseudo-adult girls cramped inside an one-room apartment, sleeping in a single bed, their hands never separated even in their deepest dreams.

"In all these years... have you ever thought about the past?" Youko asked, her voice clogged with emotion.

"Do you mean about us? Or the others?"

"Well, now that you say it, I'd like to hear about both."

For some time, Sei fell silent. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Youko slipped her hands under the pajamas she had lent Sei. She stroked Sei's skin slowly, careful to cover every patch of Sei's body with her touch, as if she was getting to know Sei once again. When she moved her hands tentatively to cup Sei's breasts, the latter one uttered a muffled moan.

"I used to think about it a lot, and I still do", Sei eventually replied, clutching Youko's hand in her own. "How about you?"

Youko sighed deeply.

"To tell the truth, there are so many things I can't even remember anymore", she said.

Once again, she was afraid to look at Sei. As the silence grew longer, she almost hoped that Sei would be angry, she wanted to be shouted at, she wanted to be called a disloyal bitch and else, but her fear that she would only see Sei's disappointed face was more incapacitating than anything. Almost imperceptibly her grip on Sei's hand got tighter.

"You really are a dummy."

Youko nodded.

"An adorable dummy", Sei said decisively.

Suddenly, in one swift and irresistible motion, Sei grabbed Youko's wrists and vaulted the dark-haired woman under her. With Sei firmly mounted on top of her, Youko felt very vulnerable.

"I think you owe me an explanation, but I'm ready to postpone it for now", Sei purred.

Amidst their kisses, Youko could taste her own, salty tears.


PS. I actually used the term "Maria-sama", although it is very un-english and it is not something I generally prefer, but somehow I felt that translating the term correctly would have sounded very odd in the context of Marimite. So, Maria-sama it is, then.

PPS. To clarify the timeline, the bar scene in Hokkaido happened before Youko arrived to the airport in Tokyo where she met Sei. Then the story jumps to Youko's house, where Youko and Sei went after they had visited Lillian. I tried to give the impression as if Youko had been telling Sei about her life.